#time travel and whatnot to stop your past selves and all

[jokersenpai-thenavigator]

Oxenfree

*Spoilers for an 8yo game!*

Oxenfree’s story isn’t terribly complex. It takes maybe 4 - 6 hours to beat, depending on how much of the collectable content you’re aiming to grab. Game play primarily consists of walking around the island, talking to your friends, and fiddling around with your pocket radio.

But DAMN does Oxenfree do well in its execution.

The aforementioned radio, as your primary means of interacting with the island, is an amazingly implemented mechanic. You can go through the entire game, only using it for its intended purpose, and it is entirely valid.

But.

If you take the time to scroll through the radio stations in different locations - even outside of the “anomaly” areas - you’ll get little pieces of information and world building.

Music stations exist, though they only play music from the 1940’s.

Certain stations in certain places will broadcast messages in Morse code, which, coupled with the opening call signs from the anomaly stations and the freaking beats in the game’s main music track, led to an ARG back in 2016 when the game was released.

Sometimes, you’ll get clips from old interviews.

And sometimes…you’ll hear yourself. Having conversations that haven’t happened.

And that’s just the radio mechanic.

Another main gimmick of the game are time loops. You’ll occasionally get stuck in a loop, only able to escape once an old magnetic tape player appears, allowing you to break through the frequency of the loop. The time loop will visually appear on the screen as almost VHS quality static, like the world around you is physically being paused and rewound each time you make it to the edge of the loop.

The screen distorts with static, gets flipped upside down and your dialogue choices reversed, still images of nautical blueprints and old photographs flash for a brief second. In the background, seemingly innocent trees and stones will twist and distort into towering monsters, eyes glowing bright against the darkness of the island, there for only a second, leaving you to wonder if you actually saw something, or if it was just your imagination.

There are moments in the game where Alex’s reflection will speak to her, giving her advice. At the moment, the information seems…strange. Nonsensical. You tell yourself to let Jonas speak to his mom - who is dead. You tell yourself to let Michael know to stay with Clarissa - despite Michael having died years ago.

The information doesn’t make sense…until you approach the end of the game. And then you have to decide whether or not to believe your reflection, and make your choices, until at the very end of everything…after everything that you’ve experienced in your play through, everything you’ve learned…you have to tell your past self what to do. The entire time, it was you.

The game ends, your futures are set…and then, as Alex is narrating her closing statements…the audio distorts. Alex says that she has to pick up Jonas for Ren’s trip to the island. The screen gets staticky, and goes black.

And then fades in on Ren, describing the history of Edward Island.

You are on a boat.

At the beginning of the game.

And you are aware that you’ve been here before.

**Link to information on the ARG, because HOLY SHIT I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE FOR THIS!!! https://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=Oxenfree#:~:text=The%20Morse%20code%20in%20the,to%20go%20to%20Edwards%20Island.

#video games #oxenfree #review i guess #or not so much a review but me squeeing about it to myself #spoilers on an 8yo game #srsly tho #i do wish i could've gotten in on the arg #this game is so good #i also had a thing about whether or not the dog images were a dr who reference #bad wolf and all that #time travel and whatnot to stop your past selves and all #but i haven't seen anyone else go there so

[ramiedersedreamer]

The Retcon and How Caliborn’s Masterpiece made everything Dubious

I'm going to focus first on the three aspects of the Retcon powers for this breakdown, super 'time travel', teleportation, and later on Canon. I won't get too deep into the effects on the Three pillars of Canon, just Truth. And then at the end my thoughts on Caliborn's Masterpiece and how Caliborn through his Time aspect indirectly caused the misuse of the Retcon ability. Spoilers for Epilogues and Pesterquest too.

I'm so sorry for the long ass post lamo.

John's retcon powers allow him to move himself and anything he touches around the story/narrative itself. It seems like an OP time travel power with no downsides, despite not being time travel at all. Based off of what we've seen it from its use with John and Reader (MSPAR), Retcon gives one the ability to jump to any point in the previously established narrative. That is, any place or time that has been shown/narrated in Homestuck. Even inside Homosuck, a warped fanfiction Caliborn narrated using his control over the story of Homestuck.

The 'time travel' specifically operates within the confines of the currently explored narrative only, and is chronologically tied to a different plane of existence. That is our chronology the audience. We never see see a Retcon user jump forward into the narrative, in like a "Procon". Like, they don't hop into their own future to see what happens, and then pop back to change the outcome, at least not without us the audience and the narrative following them and seeing the 'future' ourselves. We don't have a yet to be seen 'future' Recton user popping in to change the current narrative, Masterpiece aside (I will get to this). Actions taken by characters using the Retcon ability is and can be followed by us, the audience as it happens.

A key difference with the Retcon ability that it acts almost nothing like time travel in the comic. With time travel you can create and unwillingly be 'commanded' (or otherwise doomed) as part of time loops that sustains themselves. Loops that can exist before you perform the time travel itself, because the loop has always existed that way because of shenanigans. A future self shows up and tells you "time travel back to this spot in five minutes and tell yourself my exact words" and bam, you got a time loop that you didn't start but you sure as hell gotta finish if you don't want to be doomed. The Retcon ability doesn't work that way at all! There is no surprise visit from yours or the audiences perspective. You won't see from your perspective a future self because that's always going to be you already. You can only be the future self, and all other you's that you meet are your past selves. One day you decided to Retcon yourself back in time and tell your past self to follow your exact actions. No one told you do that before. And it doesn't matter if past you follows your advice or not, because there is no loop just a single series of events you and the audience follow linearly.

This Retcon ability is so powerful that its own power itself is a flaw, because the act of traveling back in time is permanent to any alpha or doomed timelines. There isn't a concept of a doomed time line to clean up any mess you make with the alpha, it just becomes the new alpha shitty or not. At best, can go back in time and retcon your own retcon. Either way a Retcon will leave some sort of mark there, even if no one notices you.

(And as a side note, I have no idea how paradox space handles an alpha time line that is retconned to no longer be alpha. Pre-rectonned ghosts still persist even if the time line has been changed, and a Retcon user can still access other previously retconned-but-no-longer-alpha time lines like John does in the Epilogue. The full extent of un-retconning a time line isn't fully explored either, if possible at all. As soon as John gained his Retcon powers he causes a retcon to the alpha time line by loosing the Ring of Life, which made its way into Arania's hands and caused Game Over, not to mention his hand poking everything in existence. Would John even be able to warp to the original alpha timeline where he didn't loose the ring/get retcon abilities?)

I said above the user can travel to any place and time inside the narrative, and without time travel that just becomes teleportation. There are examples in the comic, and especially Pesterquest, where the Retcon ability is used without retconning anything at all, but just as a means of moving the story forward to a new location (or escaping something). All and all it acts like conventional teleportation. The Retcon user can jump to entirely new places, unseen in the previous narrative or by the User them self. For a practiced User, this can plop them anywhere they desire.

We have two examples of the Retcon not working.

The first explicit one we've seen was in the Candy Epilogue. At some point between collecting up Gamzee and John's attempt to save Dirk, John just straight up can't use the Retcon anymore. I will note here that John is not trying to jump back into the comic or anywhere outside of the Candy Epilogue to save Dirk. He's just trying to pop back a week. I think he also attempts to teleport with it maybe? Been a while. But either way, we can assume for now that he has lost all aspects of the Retcon ability.

The second in Pesterquest when Reader attempts to 'skip' ahead to see Nepeta they are blocked by an entity, T-Poser. Instead of teleporting to her, Reader ends up in some weird place repeatedly, unable to accomplish their goal. Upon regaining the memories of their friends from Friendsim, they are blocked once again from being able to time travel back to them as well. Both teleportation and time travel are blocked. Of note here is that when Reader acquires their powers, it happens inside of the Pesterquest game itself.

Theories!

One possible theory for Candy!John's blocked powers is that he is no longer part of the 'Homestuck Canon', and the House Juju's granted abilities only work inside that Canon. Use of the Retcon cannot jump between two different 'Canons'. When John grabbed Gamzee the 'Canon' split between Meat and Candy was dubious. By the time John wanted to prevent Dirk's death, the 'Canons' were fully split apart. This theory clashes with, or confirms the powers and limitations of Retcon in Pesterquest depending on how you look at it. Aradia states that Reader is in not just a doomed timeline, but a doomed universe. Using their abilities Reader has removed the 'Truth' pillar from the universe in the same way that John not using his ability removed the 'Truth' from Candy. Of course, there can be unknown variables at work here that allow this doomed Pesterquest universe to still have access to the Juju's power that aren't in Candy (like the Juju presenting Reader their powers in the Game/narrative).

John's ability loss could be because anything inside the black hole is cut from any sort of Canon changing power (and maybe John was only able to grab Gamzee because the Candy timeline wasn't fully 'transferred' into the black hole at the time). This would imply that the Retcon power comes from a source, and that it transmits to the user in such a way that it can be blocked off. This would also mean that those who have the Retcon power will always have the ability to use that power, assuming it isn't blocked off.

Alt!Calliope could be using her narrative powers to suppress John's abilities either selectively or completely, preventing the attempt to save Dirk (don't think any further attempts are mentioned?). As noted before John wasn't trying to jump back into the Homestuck or Meat Canon, he was trying to retcon inside Candy and Candy alone when he was stopped. This would mean certain powers can completely suppress the OP Retcon abilities, regardless of the Retcon users will. With this we don't know if Alt!Calliope has removed John's power completely, or if she is just blocking it temporarily and he can continue using the Retcon power once she stops narrating Candy.

This matches up with what we've seen in Pesterquest. Who or whatever is preventing Reader from using their abilities to the full effect of their will. T-Poser even tells Reader "Stop fucking trying to skip ahead. It's not going to work." after several attempts at meeting Nepeta before her chapter was released. This T-Poser, instead of shutting down the powers completely, is selectively allowing the Reader to use it to continue the narrative in PQ. While Readers inability to time travel back into Friendsims to see their friends could be seen as 'not being able to jump between canons', it seems just as likely the T-Posers doing. Another possibility is that when one (who still can use their Retcon powers) trys jumping to another canon they are brought to that strange hallway and T-Poser instead. Maybe T-Poser is the source of the Retcon power instead of a narrater? (Or maybe both, Andrew Hussie)

Finally we come to the conspiracy part of this conspiracy-turned-retcon-mechanics-wordvomit.

I think Caliborn's Masterpiece was a Truth Paradox, and it's why the Epilogues and everything after that point are and should be considered dubiously canon. You can't retcon a story that hasn't happened yet, and yet Caliborn narrated it into some weird Truth of Canon. Caliborn's whole THING is time loops, the undeniable truth and essentiality that these loops must be filled or doomed away. And Caliborn, that fucker, his fault or not applied that concept to the only form of time travel that can't have any loops. Hammered in the square into the circle hole.

John is our anchor in this story, we follow his path as he changes things via Retcon. This is true for the entier comic, and for Reader in Pesterquest. Both our timeline and the Main Character's timeline increment together. Maybe not consistently between updates or whatnot, but our timelines are both always going forward together (Flashbacks don't count shush). In the Masterpiece this isn't true. We have a John from the future show up. An unknown. This John has traveled back from an unknown future story, we do not know him. He could be John five minutes after winning Sburb, June in her 40's, John in his 20's, or ultimate!self June who's been alive for a thousand years. But he isn't our John. Any John/June could fill in that clay doll so long as they possess the Retcon ability (or have some way of showing up with "ghost powers"). Hell, even a look alike could, I double Caliborn would know the difference.Any of those clay dolls could be any version of the characters they represent, or look alikes. To further obscure things, when Caliborn is retelling the tale it isn't from personal experience. He hasn't fought the kids at all and it isn't happening to him as he narrates. No, a screen showed him the supposed battle. "I SAW IT ONCE, ON ONE OF MY PLANET'S MANY SCREENS. THE LAND OF "COLOURS". AND THE LAND OF "MAYHEM"." Can we even trust this supposed retelling of an event that happened on a screen? A screen that may or may not have been showing the truth?All these factors make the Masterpiece highly unreliable. The most unreliable Homestuck has ever been. I'm reminded of Equius's Pesterquest route. The moment Reader decides to hop backwards in time to see how Equius broke his horn, we are not given a single cause. Instead, Reader enters into dubious canonical territory showing multiple canons where Equius lost his horn. I think this exactly what the Masterpiece is, and why it's true form was never shown in the comic. Why it had that weird inconstancy with John's Retcon and why the 'Canon' Meat Epilogue addressed it. Even Candy, by using the power of two entier universes in the form of a blackhole to keep these characters alive in a pocket dimension by addressing it indirectly. Like I said, any John/June could fulfil the requirements that the Masterpiece needs to complete the Story. And all of those June's and John's will be, if narrated, the anchor and the true original future John/June predeterminately retconning the story. Every way Equius lost his horn is true: Every way the Masterpiece is and will be narrated/addressed is true.

#homestuck #homestuck epilogue #pesterquest #retcon #my thoughts #theories #theory

[jokaito-a]

ren’s palace: mansion of perfection

DEADLINE:

24th of february - 24th of march

KEYWORDS:

rentaro amamiya shibuya trainstation mansion perfection

MUSIC THEME:

haunting

APPEARANCE OF THE PALACE

when you gain all the keywords, shibuya’s trainstation changes to a big mansion, a part of it obscured by mist above. there’s only gray colours, and you hear inhumane growling. from the outside, it looks extravagant, but it gives off a haunting vibe. there’s a big gate, one which makes you feel small. it feels like a prison. behind you there’s a forest of which leads directly back to the real world, but it’s hard to get through it. it’s snowing, and it never stops.

going inside, you see a staircase that is in the form of a reversed y. taking the stairs you notice the doors that leads to beyond is locked. above you there’s a chandelier, full of spiderwebs but yet in pristine state outside of that. there’s blood that drips from the ceiling, but unless they hit anyone, they disappear before they hit the ground. 

now you have to go downstairs again, and sneak through the door that’s on the right. there you’ll enter a hallway filled with paintings, but all of them are crossed out with red paintings. below you see the reason why they died, but all seem to lead to a common theme: they were the previous palace holders excluding futaba and sae. go down further to enter the room.

there you’ll see a small dining room, but no one is there. at least, no one who’s really alive. you’ll see the bodies of ren’s parents sitting at the table, their corpses limb over the furniture. thinking of sneaking past won’t help since they’ll suddenly stand up, pointing a weapon at you to get you away from their perfect son. you’ll have to battle them, and the only spells they can’t resist is those who’s ren’s lover specializes in. if he doesn’t have any, they’re weak against curse.

when you defeat them, you gain a key. this key can be used to unlock the next room, which has a staircase. going up, you enter another hallway. at first this one seems normal, just containing some small vases, shadows, and whatnot, until you reach the end of the hall. the door exchanges itself for a painting, one where a drowning ren is shown. second laters, hands grab your leg, and you’re dragged down below.

now you’re the same level as before, but beyond the wall of where the earlier staircase is. next to you is a safe room, and it contains a priest who will heal you the first time you enter it. the safe room is where originally the flower store is, and the room has red roses, but they’re wilting.

going on to the next part, you open the door on the opposite end of where you stood first within the level, and you enter a cell. there are all of of ren’s enemies, tortured, and their limbs cut off to be used for rituals. enemies will largely ignore you if they’re the one doing that to the former palace holders. continue on to find yourself in front of a locked door. a puzzle now has to be solved. the key is to go back to the safe room where the priest is, but there you’ll find a cognition of sae. a mini boss fight ensues, and a certain tactic is needed to defeat her before she hands you over the key. now enter the locked door.

open the door of the room teleports you to the start of the inside of the mansion, but now the key goads you to go up. there you go upstairs again, and are led to the left room. there you walk into what is supposed to be ren’s room, but it’s... rather empty. only a bed and a book on it is there. grabbing the book will at one point show a staircase, and it leads you to somewhere higher than you’ve been to before.

above you see a huge set of doors. opening it you’ll see the insides of a church, a funeral going on. there you see various family member of his putting a rose on a casket, the one being another ren. they mourn the death of his reputation, wishing to bury him to no longer eye the disappointment. at one point his cousin, who has come late, will see you at the door, and a boss fight stars where he calls you ungrateful because you ruined the rest ren deserved. defeating him will make the rest of those who attend ren’s funeral afraid of you, but they’ll murmur more about how they find ren even more disappointing now, only the lover of ren truly mourning him.

stepping beyond the place you enter a huge library. rows upon rows you find books, but they all just have a black cover. opening them will reveal their titles, and it reveals ren’s self-loathing. it ends with his idea to create eden with the rest of the thieves. a case shoves itself to the side, revealing a safe room.

a staircase now appears in the middle of the room, but when you think it’s a calm room, not entering the safe room first is a mistake. the staircase slowly melts underneath your feet, and it traps you and then the floor flips, throwing you down below.

now you’re below, and in a room full of paintings. the more you travel through it, the more they becomes longer, and one final painting stretched out enough to reveal a claw at the bottom. an enemy climbs out, and it attacks you instantly.

after you defeat the enemy, proceed to the next door. opening it reveals another staircase, next to it a safe room, and you have to climb it up a long time. paintings on the right shows the rise and downfall of ren in a way of lucifer, but worse; in the final painting, his nightmarish, despairing face because of abandonment appears in the final painting in front of the door leading to the treasure room.

when you open the door, you see an empty room with merely a chair, behind it the treasure. once the calling card is send. entering this place again will show you the treasure is no longer there within the room, but a new door is unlocked. a warning enters your mind, but it’s too cryptic to understand.

open the door, and you’ll find yourself in a room with a huge alter. the phantom thieves are playing loudly a symphony, one of which can inflict you with despair if you listen too long to it. 

there you find the shadow ren, he who’s called helel in the palace, suffering a way akin to how he did in the interrogation room. the difference is that it is done more a martyrish way, he being praised like some sort of god; the shadows beg for their god to bear them knowledge, to show them the path to the light. once the enemies are done with him, he’s drowned in a bath full of rosewater... and he arises more beautiful than before, but he becomes uncanny. the shadows dress him in majestic clothes. he walks to his throne; a crown is put ontop of his head. afterwards he’s touched, loved by the shadows, and his eyes glow gold now. he’ll talk now to the thieves, offering them to join him. rejecting him leads to the boss fight.

BOSS FIGHT:

mini boss fight happens first with the cognitive, weaker phantom thieves. the lover of ren goes to his side, helel kissing them with his mouth bloodied to make them stronger. insults from the cognitives will be launched to their real selves. defeating them will lead to helel snapping, appearing, and fighting them afterwards. WEAK TO: curse REPELS: bless

HELEL’S APPEARANCE:

in his more humane form, he’s dressed in a victorian-style outfit with holy themes attached to it. a rose is in the chest pocket of his coat, and he has a glow around him. he wears a mourning veil. his hair is neatly styled.

once transformed into his shadow self form, he’s an an angel with black wings, an adonis with his crown and treasures. he has three faces, two partially obscured by long, shaggy, and thick hair, coming out of it like screaming statues. he’ll wear a royal attire with shades of red, black, and golden edges, an outfit inspired by satanael. he has fangs and horns, eight eyes that are gold will see you everywhere, predicting every move as ren sees the world in algorithms.

AFTER THE FIGHT:

upon his defeat, he’ll crawl to the defeated cognitive thieves, apologizing for being a failure of a leader. whispers of his voice call him out, and they boom and become louder and louder. you can grab the treasure and go, or comfort him and he’ll give it willingly. the treasure takes the form of an invitation to the ball. once received, helel will teleport them away to the front of the palace. outside in the real world, the treasure is revealed to be an old puppet ren got from his father.

#✧ i. ` .♡ ! ● ( ooc ) stars spinning webs of gilded gossamer. #( made a new palace with help of my friend rena sdvdbh)

[juniper-rose-blower]

Erasing Your Doubt

(( It took much longer to get back into RPing the rest of this out, what with work and whatnot. Sorry to keep y’all hanging! There is more of this coming over the next week ^_^ Enjoy! [still takes place before the burning of Teldrassil] ))

Those first few training days in the Temple of the Jade Serpent had quickly turned into a week, and then two. Since arriving, both Juniper and Malodar had shed a great deal of preconceptions - and their extraneous armor and weapons - to spar in simple clothing with only their fists. Where Juniper was strong but petite, Malodar was larger but a little rusty. They were quite evenly matched.

Their time in the Jade Forest was nearing three weeks total when the Elder Sage called upon them to meet him at the dojo. The surprising addition to that request was to bring their escort, Daer’Leon, with them.

As the trio entered the dojo, the Elder greeted them with a smile, bidding they sit. "Today marks the day you move forward in your journey to rise above your former selves. Perhaps you've noticed that several Sha have manifested around the Temple's grounds?"

Malodar coughed as he looked up at the Elder Sage. "I had nothing to do with that," he joked before he could stop himself.

Tai-Feng's eyes shifted to Mal as a deep chuckle emanated from him. He shook his head gently, "No, that is true. You are not to blame this time, young Malodar." As he said this, his eyes shifted back to Leon, "There is one of your party who has yet to face his deepest Doubt, and it is far stronger than could be controlled."

Leon's scarred face looked surprised, and he looked over his shoulder for a moment, then back to Tai-Feng, "Me?"

To this, the Elder bowed his torso dangerously forward. "Your final task, young Hunter and friends, before you travel onward to the Temple of the White Tiger, is to vanquish this final negative force. Tell me, Malodar and Juniper: What do you think your companion's doubt is?"

Mal opened his mouth to protest the 'this time' comment, as that incident was most certainly not his fault either. But as the elder turned his attention to Leon, so too did Mal with a curious eyebrow. He held up his hand with a purple glow, "I could certainly get in there and find out."

June prodded Mal in the ribs hard for this taunt, pale eyes turning to look at Leon curiously. Brow furrowed, she looked back to the Elder Sage, "Do you want us to give a guess?"

Ever a look of patience upon his face, Elder Sage Tai-Feng gave a nod and looked between Mal and June quietly. Leon, meanwhile was averting his gaze away from the three of them, his hand moving to lay over the crescent-shaped medallion resting on a leather strap on his neck, muttering quietly.

Malodar watched Leon intently. He hadn't learned much about their companion yet, but from the pieces and anecdotes, he could hazard a guess. "I believe his… transformation has him in doubt about his beloved in some way." Leon's shrouded gaze lifted sharply at Malodar's words.

Tai-Feng clicked his tongue gently and intertwined his fingers before him, "Daer'Leon. You have, in your lifetime, been a man of confidence. Of charisma. Of conviction."

As the look of surprise unfolded on the Hunter's face, a soft woman's voice emanated again from his medallion, revealing the source from which the Elder Sage had learned more about June and Mal's elusive travel companion: Belle. Leon's brow knitted together as it wrinkled upward with worry. "I was once a protector, a guardian of Nature, and an expectant father... but I failed in my duty... and now I am none of those things." His tone was solemn as he spoke.

Malodar folded his arms somewhat confidently, and when he spoke to Leon it was with a force and bravado that was intended to snap him out of his mood. "Have you heard nothing the Master has said about doubt? You are doused in it. Facing it, as we had, is the only way you can be everything she needs you to be..." He was serious but demanding, trying to rile him into action. "You're not that weak, are you?"

June's pale eyes looked too at Leon, though they furrowed and looked briefly at Malodar in disapproval of his methods. Her expression softened as she pointed to Leon, "But that's not true. You protect her even still. Didn't you do what you did to find her? I can't think of anything you could do to be a guardian and protector better than that!" Admittedly, she had no answer for being an expectant father, but she wasn't wrong, either!

Tai-Feng watched the two trying to snap Leon out of his solemnity and adjusted his clasped hands. "Tell me, Leon. What is that irking fear in your mind... I believe it is far more specific than you've let on."

To this, Leon furrowed his heavy brow over his shrouded eyes. He loosed a weighted sigh. "With Bells in the condition she is now, and my own... our future looks nothing like we envisioned... and trying to picture it like we used to only ends in disaster every time I do."

June's words fell short as she looked at Leon in sympathy. Admittedly, she had no idea what they had been before, so she had no gauge. They had spoken before of his previous dabbling in alchemy, but it had not exactly been a deep conversation.

Malodar looked almost furious and threw himself up to his feet. "You think I envisioned my home and life being ripped apart by a blasted dragon? My sister being thrown to the winds of fate? Everyone suffers, everyone's life is thrown into chaos… but you find a new path! You make a new future… and you make it whatever YOU want!" He pointed his finger at Leon's face as if he were challenging him.

Tai-Feng watched, holding up a hand as June was half-way through pushing herself to her feet to come to Leon's defense. She stopped, looking back at the Elder and nodding. As Leon stood, the Elder cleared his throat loudly enough for Malodar to step back and pay attention. "Daer'Leon. Your companions have spent the past two weeks learning to hone their focus as sharply as a hunter's. They have sparred and trained their bodies to raise their endurance. They have overtaken their deepest fears and emerged on the other side to embrace who they are without those burdens on their hearts." Leon remains silent and stoney-faced, though his shrouded gaze was pointed directly at the Pandaren as he listened. Tai-Feng continued, "I think it is time you take the first step to overcoming these burdens on your mind and heart. Come with me." With that, the Elder Sage motioned them to stand and follow him as he made his way to the entrance to the dojo.

Malodar paused and stood straighter, retreating a step back and to the side and folded his arms. At the elder sage's instruction he silently moved to the door ahead of them all and stood aside to wait for them all to pass.

June watched as the Elder walked toward the doorway, then looked back at Leon. He still said nothing, though he gave June the tiniest of nods. Without another word, they followed after the Pandaren as he led them all out of the dojo and into the afternoon air. The sound of fighting was distant - apparently the Sha manifestations had been minor, for the most part. But as the Elder led their group across the grounds, the air seemed to grow colder as a chill built up on the backs of their necks. Down a winding path and up a set of stairs, and they finally found themselves near where the path dead-ended. Tai-Feng turned to Leon, looking quite serious, "You must be willing to move forward and embrace who and what you are. Things that are in your control should be done smartly. Things that are not... should be let go. Are you willing?"

Leon watched the Elder intently, and eventually gave a nod. "I am willing," he offered simply. Tai-Feng nodded, looking over the Hunter's face in thought. "Very well," he finally said, motioning up the ramp ahead of them, "Your path has twisted and turned and wound its way to bring you here. It is with this knowledge that I say to you three to prepare your farewells. For after you face this challenge, you will be ready to head to the next Temple."

Mal put his hand on Leon's shoulder and pushed him forward slightly. "Stop worrying about it and fight..." He offered simply. "Don't die and I'll buy you a drink."

June looked to Mal, placing a hand on Leon's other shoulder, stepping forward a little to continue to nudge the Hunter onward, "We are a team... we will help you should you need it." With these encouraging words, Tai-Feng nodded and led them up the ramp.

The creature that stood before them was significantly larger than the two shadows that June and Mal had faced a week and a half ago. Its body was made of swirling light and shadow, with wicked spikes and twisted claws and a maw that threatened to open more than enough to engulf them all.

Tai-Feng offered one repeated piece of wisdom to the Hunter as he took a half-step forward, “You have yet to face that deepest doubt… but you cannot wait any longer.” The Elder Sage watched quietly before motioning to the Sha creature. “Your Doubt is now manifested before you, Moonsorrow. The path forward is hindered by its presence. Embrace who you are. Good luck.”

Mal paused at the top of the stairs, letting the other two walk ahead of him slightly. He glanced over his shoulder at the Master's final advice. He looked down at his feet. The ritual had banished the worst of the doubt from his mind, but he still struggled to make that decision. He had been a monster of a fighter once, he had convinced himself there was a better path, and now been told he might have been wrong. He looked up to the beast and before his eyes it seemed to grow even more fearsome, only in his imagination perhaps. He drew his longknife from his belt and stared at it. As he did it swirled with purple and black tendrils of energy that seemed to come from the very flesh of his hand. He stepped up to his companions and pointed the knife at the creature. "Let's kill this thing..." His voice thick with excitement at the prospect.

June looked back at Mal and gave a small shake of her head, then looked at Leon, waiting for his response. But he said nothing. He merely stepped forward, rolling his shoulders again. His wings gave a small half-flap, rustling against the strange feeling the Sha creature was inciting in him. With a deep inhale, he drew his curved glaives from his back.

Before them, the ungodly transformation that unfolded was surreal. The winged Kaldorei that stood before them seemed to swell to unnatural proportions, muscles bulging against what little armor he wore. His wings opened and arched above his head as his legs grew thicker and longer, his feet morphing into heavy hooves. The fel flame that smouldered behind his shroud was now alive and burning brightly. He glanced back at June and Mal for half a beat, and when he spoke, it was in that deep voice he always spoke with, "... For Bells." And then he turned and leapt into the air, flying right for the Sha creature like a meteor.

Mal smirked slightly with an arched eyebrow as the hunter swelled with demonic power. "Show off." As the demon leaped, Mal held his free hand out palm up and squeezed his palm as if gripping something in the air. The shadow-creatures own energy erupting from rifts in the ground around them swirled with Mal's command and rushed up to the airborne hunter. The tempest of energy pressed against the hulking form and pushed it forth with even more velocity toward its target.

June watched as Leon charged the creature, followed shortly by Mal adding his strength against it. It was truly massive compared to the ones they had fought before. Tai-Feng gave her an encouraging look, "A healer is a fighter, too. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," he said to her. That was more than enough for her. She ran forward, drawing her initialed push-daggers from her waist and let forth a slew of strikes against the creature.

Leon's blades swung with deadly precision, careful to miss June while keeping the Sha's focus solely on him. He watched as June took a jump back, taking a moment to release a chaotic explosion of fel energy, catching the creature off-guard as Malodar's energy seemed to meld with the fel to eat away at the creature's form, working in perfect sync.

As the creature seemed to slowly succumb to their strikes, Mal threw his dagger spinning up into the air. With both hands he grabbed control of the swirls of sha energy around them. They ceased to random clouds but conjoined into solid tendrils. Lancing toward the creature, they managed to ensnare its limbs, preventing escape. Mal caught his dagger as it fell and threw it for good measure, embedding it in the monster's flesh.

June watched as Mal's dagger found itself embedded into the head of the creature, sliding beneath it to bring it lower to the ground, thanks to Mal's tendrils, as well as moving herself to safety.

Leon stood over the creature, exuding confidence as he looked down at it. The vibrance of his fel-burning eyes grew brighter and brighter. With a shout, Leon's wings flapped once, lifting his hulking form about a foot from the ground. A great expulsion of fel fire shot forth from Leon's eyes into the creature, obliterating it into nothingness. The attack seemed to go in slow motion, but as it ended, the Hunter’s form shrank down to its still-large size compared to June and Mal, his shroud strangely unaffected by what just happened. His grip on his glaives relaxed a little, and he let out a visible sigh of relief.

June gave a gentle smile, looking to Mal to make sure he too was ok.

Malodar stepped forward as the sha energy around them began to dissipate, including the tendrils he had seized control of. He picked up his dagger from the cobblestones and shook it off of any remaining residue from the creature. He sheathed it and clapped a hand on Leon's shoulder. "I could've done that… if I had demon-energy-eyes." He smiled at both of them.

June couldn't help but chuckle at Mal's comment. Leon gave a rather boisterously relaxed guffaw and clapped the priest on the shoulder in turn. "Thank you, both," he said, "... that... that was something I apparently really needed."

To this, June nodded and reached out awkwardly with one hand, as if trying to decide whether to hug him or shake his hand. She ended up patting his arm twice before smiling and clasping her fingers together in front of her, "I guess the next leg of our journey is to the next Temple?"

Malodar nodded, "The Temple of the White Tiger." He turned to the northwest and looked up toward the top of a large peak in the distance. "No small climb at all." He frowned slightly. "And doesn't look like the kind of place to find a good hard drink. Ah well."

Leon motioned toward the buildings, "Let's ask about getting gryphons - they might have something to help."

At the sound of this, June hesitated for a moment before nodding, "No harm in asking, I suppose."

Mal tilted his head and looked to the temple grounds. "I believe here they use some kind of magical kite things..." He looked quite uncertain. "I suppose its quicker."

June shrugged and lead the way forward, "Let's go, then."

(( mentions: @malodarstarstrike @moonsorrowhouse @bellalily-moonsorrow ))

#June #Malodar #Daer'Leon #plot #rp #defeating doubt #Seeking Inner Peace

[mindjuice]

5Rs: A PROCESS ON TAKING A STEP BACK AND STARTING ANEW

Upon finding out something that would surely break your heart, you probably go through a hell lot of emotions. You may feel sad, exhausted, hopeless, mad, or whatnot. There are a dozen of emotions one might be able to feel after reading that unexpected e-mail or text message but one’s initial reaction to a heartbreaking moment is incomparable to the aftermath–the healing process. As human beings who can feel things simultaneously, we have different ways to cope with pain or heartbreak. One might choose to curl up in bed and do absolutely nothing until he or she feels nothing, not even the pain. Another person might opt to binge-eat her favorite food until that food numbs the pain. On the other hand, a person might prefer to drown herself in alcohol until all what’s left is the realization that at the end of the day, it all went wrong and all the alcohol did was not to erase but merely just to cover the pain. All these are the usual band-aid solutions to our problems in life. But to dig deeper, we all go through almost the same process to deal with our respective heartaches and emotions. It’s going to be a long process, but it will always be worth it. Let me share with you the 5Rs that help me ease the pain.

1.REFLECT– After the first strike of the pain, it would feel as if it still hasn’t sunk in. You know that it was painful but you are only in the early stage of the healing process. You do nothing but grieve and recall the moments why it all went wrong. You feel like loathing yourself because you know that at some point you are actually the one who should take all the blame. This is where you pause, take a step back and reflect. After realizing that you just got rejected or that the universe didn’t allow you to push through with a plan or dream, you take a step back in order to see the bigger picture and reflect afterwards. This stage usually helps one to reevaluate oneself. We pause to take a break and to stop ourselves from getting overwhelmed with the stress and the pain we just felt.Reflecting can be done in a lot of ways. It can be spiritual,educational, or whatnot. This stage merely focuses on the mind and how it produces ways to go back and improve ourselves.

2.REBOOT- Upon pausing and reflecting, this is the stage wherein we decide that we should stop ourselves from pursuing what just caused our pain. We decide to reboot. This is a short stage in-between the process because this is only where we finally make the decision that it’s okay to stop. This is like an affirmation that there is a ceasefire from the battle. We retreat and take all the time we need to get our pieces back together. This stage is all about making the decision to stop either temporarily or permanently from doing something that’s been racking or causing trauma to our emotional well-being. This highlights the importance of not forcing something. This is the part where we acknowledge that we have experienced pain, accepting that we should move forward.

3. RECHARGE– This is the part where one usually decides to take an action in order to bounce back after going through such an ordeal. In short, this is the first step to moving forward. As for me, I have decided to enroll in a gym because working out, for me, is the first step to getting my pieces back together. Exercising helps me think clearly on what I really want to do in life or what my next step is going to be. Others might go through this stage by decluttering or throwing pieces of the excruciating past and making room for new memories and adventures. Others might also feel the need to travel to fuel themselves up again to see what life still has to offer after going through the pain. Lastly, some might opt to invest in new hobbies such as reading, writing, painting or other hobbies which can help one to express oneself or to have an outlet, at the very least.

4. REALIGN– Right after transforming the solution into an action comes the part where we compartmentalize and prioritize our goals in life. After going through the process of thinking, reflecting and reevaluating, it’s high time for us to finally plan our next step. If we have a lot of goals and plans in mind, we should organize it so as not to get overwhelmed. We can keep a journal with us in order to list down our priorities. Listing down our priorities or categorizing them helps us to take it one step at a time. The key to not be overwhelmed is to “organize,don’t panic”. We have to take it one day at a time or else we’ll lose ourselves in the process. To realign is to keep things in order. We may not be able to perfectly do it as there would still be external factors which we won’t be able to control, but we have to at least try to practice the art of organizing and disciplining ourselves.This is the stage where we apply the things we have learned from our mistakes. We start anew by putting things into their own compartments. This is how we get rid of the unnecessary drama on the side. This is how we cut off toxicity from the past.

5. REDIRECT– Redirecting is the final step in this cycle. This is where we usually start with the new life that we just planned. We start anew by bidding farewell to our old selves and by heading to a promising tomorrow. We have fresh minds and hearts after being shattered into pieces. We are whole again. The pain is still there, it may still sting every once in a while, but its role is to teach us and to redirect us to beautiful and hopeful paths. It will not be perfect but it sure will be better than our past mistakes and ordeals. To redirect is to see life from a new perspective, realizing that without the horrors of our past, we wouldn’t get to appreciate the beauty of life in the present, and the hope in the future.

At the end of the day, the 5Rs is a cycle. We are not promised with a linear path because life moves in circles as it has a pattern, only with different in-betweens. A linear path is a boring one because the start and finish lines are plotted while circles go on forever, not knowing when it will end. We do not know when it will be our time to leave but as long as we are breathing, we should always remain hopeful. We should not worry because we can always grow and change. We can always heal and start anew. As John Lennon said: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

(published on asjportfolio: aug 26,2019)

[betweengenesisfrogs]

OFF THE CUFF HOMESTUCK THOUGHTS #3: THE SELF PILE DOESN’T STOP FROM GETTING TALLER OR: THE PROBLEM OF DEAD MARIOS

DISCLAIMER

IMPORTANT THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

[CHECK THE TAG FOR MORE THOUGHTS]

So, a long-ass time ago, Rose and Dave had a conversation like this:

TT: After you go, what do you think will happen to me? TT: Will I just cease to exist? TG: i dont know TG: i mean your whole timeline will TG: maybe TT: Maybe? TT: Is there a chance it'll continue to exist, and I'll just be here alone forever? TT: I'm not sure which outcome is more unsettling. TG: the thing with time travel is TG: you cant overthink it TG: just roll with it and see what happens TG: and above all try not to do anything retarded TT: What do you think I should do? TG: try going to sleep TG: our dream selves kind of operate outside the normal time continuum i think TG: so if part of you from this timelines going to persist thats probably the way to make it happen TT: Ok. TG: and hey you might even be able to help your past dream self wake up sooner without all that fuss you went through TT: I think the true purpose of this game is to see how many qualifiers we can get to precede the word "self" and still understand what we're talking about.

This is the most important sentence in Homestuck.

I am dead serious.

Well, OK, I mean, it’s pretty important for understanding some major Homestuck themes and shit or something like that.

Also, I totally should have said: Pre-Retcon Doomed Timeline Non-Dreamself Rose but ultimately about to become Dreamself Rose who semi-merged with Pre-Retcon Alpha Timeline Rose and Doomed Timeline Dave aka Davesprite AKA future Davepetasprite^2 or as we all call them around the office, Davepeta, had that conversation.

Maybe you begin to see what I’m going to talk about here.

One of the major frustrations a lot of people had with the retcon was that the characters we ended up with at the end weren’t the ones we’d come to love and know throughout the story. Was it even worth it, to lose the characters we loved to the tyranny of Game Over? The victorious kids, with the exception of John and Roxy, were other people, with other histories, other goals, and other choices.

Allow me to submit that that may be the whole point.

SBURB is cruel. We’ve known that for a long time. It’s cruel not as Caliborn is cruel, but as the cosmos is cruel, as a supernova is cruel. It wants what it wants, and doesn’t care about how that intersects with the needs of humanity. It wants to make universes through a complex game-playing method, and drags hapless, vulnerable adolescents along for the ride. And most of the time it doesn’t even succeed, leaving its champions to rot in a doomed timeline or similar! Skaia’s victory is an amoral creation myth where individual human beings are just the carved pieces on the chessboard. (I mean, the other ones. Not the carapacians.)

Again, let’s consider the theme of VIDEO GAMES vs. REAL LIFE.

Homestuck, let’s be real, is basically some postmodern horror timey-wimey Jumanji. For a generation way more familiar with pixels than cute little tokens It’s easy for teenagers and in fact, basically everyone, to fantasize about escaping their life and slipping into some game world forever, where they get to do awesome things and be a heroic person.

Homestuck makes that literal. Congratulations, everything you ever knew is dead. You will never see it again, except your internet friends, who turn out also to be your family and other important people. I mean, from a distance, SBURB sounds like an awesome game, right? You figure out who you are and get to wear a cool costume displaying that identity. You get to make anything you want and enjoy this hyperflexible mythology tailored to YOUR CHOICES. HS fans talk all the time about how cool it would be to play a real version of SBURB. That’s a big part of the appeal of SBURB fan adventures. They put you and your friends in the story. Or your favorite characters! It sounds like a fantasy come true.

The thing is, as fantastical as it is, it’s also really fucked up, and ultimately you and your friends are being used. By a giant frog to let it have its babies. By the universe. By a smug blue cloud thing that doesn’t care about you at all.

SBURB does not care about you at all.

The funny thing, SBURB features a mythology with so many layers and nuances and seemingly human motifs about growth and self that you might search for some grand ultimate meaning behind it, but it’s not even human enough to have a personality, to be something you can argue with or fight. It just is. It’s all the cruelty and power of a god without any of the dazzling personality. It’s empty. It just wants to make universes all day long, or fail trying. It is a great, weird tadpole-making machine that eats children.

One of the big ways it doesn’t care about you is its attitude toward the self. Humans and trolls and whatnot prefer not to be relentlessly duplicated. SBURB says, oh yeah, let’s make tons of copies of the player characters and use them for a lot of different purposes.

There’s the dreamself, an essential bifurcation of identity (you are now and were always the dream moon princex) that sometimes gets merged into god tier but sometimes doesn’t. There’s doomed timeline selves, who exist ultimately to augment an Alpha timeline whose Alphaness is decided very arbitrarily and frequently by Lord English. There’s the you who exists before a scratched session and the you who exists afterward, who are two different people but started as one baby in an act of ectobaby meteor duplication, your player self and your guardian self. Dead timeline yous fill up the dreambubbles made by the horrorterrors and get endlessly confused with each other. Any one of these could be the you experience being at any given moment, and which one it is entirely arbitrary. Don’t like being Dead Nepeta #47? Tough hoofbeast leavings, kiddo.

To top it all off, in Terezi: Remember, we learn that every single time we thought someone changed from one self to another, was resurrected or something like that, it was another act of duplication. For every time someone’s died, there’s another version of them waiting in the Dream Bubbles, surprised that they’re not the main character anymore. And we have no way of knowing which is which. Even John, good old everyman John, may or may not be the person who died three or four times. It’s really impossible to say whether we’ve been following the same person throughout our story, or just the illusion of the same person, like a horrifying cosmic flipbook.

The retcon is a return to this same theme. Ultimately, there’s very little new in the changes John makes to reality except that they drive the point home.

John’s friends all died. John and his friends won the game. These things are both true at the same time, except those things may not have happened to the same people. There was a happy ending. Hooray! For, um, some folks who may or may not be the ones we care about. In fact, it’s very confusing, because from Rose’s perspective, Roxy is dead but came back to life, and from Roxy’s perspective Rose is dead but came back to life, except also she came back to life as a weird tentacle catgirl of pure id and self –indulgence. So there’s that. Um. Which Rose are we rooting for again?

Or wait: is it none of them, because the first Rose died in a doomed timeline, hundreds of panels and a number of years ago?

There’s a tension here which one experiences between saying it’s okay because it’s still the same people, and saying it’s not okay, because it’s not the same people at all. This tension is exactly what we’re meant to wrestle with. To put it another way, Homestuck asks if identity can work in aggregate. Are all Johns John, all Roses Rose, and do they all share in what they accomplish? Or are the final victors only accidents created by the whims and needs of the frog baby machine?

What I’m saying, basically, is that the retcon, in the sense that it pointed out our confused relationship with these characters, was already here.

In interviews and questions put to him over the years, Hussie constantly compares HS and SBURB to other video games, particularly Mario, which he frequently returns to as a baseline of comparison that most of his readers will know. One answer, from a recent Hiveswap interview, is particularly revelatory. To the question of “Why do you kill off all your characters?” Hussie replies:

[…]HS is supposedly a story that is also a game. In games, the characters die all the time. How many times did you let Mario fall in the pit before he saved the princess? Who weeps for these Marios. In games your characters die, but you keep trying and trying and rebooting and resetting until finally they make it. When you play a game this process is all very impersonal. Once you finally win, when all is said and done those deaths didn’t “count”, only the linear path of the final victorious version of the character is considered “real”. Mario never actually died, did he? Except the omniscient player knows better. HS seems to combine all the meaningless deaths of a trial-and-error game journey with the way death is treated dramatically in other media, where unlike our oblivious Mario, the characters are aware and afraid of the many deaths they must experience before finally winning the game.

The big man hass the answer.

Homestuck is the story of those dead Marios.

Other works, like Undertale, have engaged with this topic as well. But one of the major differences between Undertale and Homestuck is that in Undertale, between “lives,” one’s consciousness is preserved. In Homestuck, it’s discontinuous, and the value of the overall trial-error process is called into question by the fact that you, the player, may not even get to experience the victory. What meaning does victory hold if that is the case?

So, to put it in a nice thesis format:

One of the central themes of Homestuck is the challenge of reconciling an arbitrary and destructive pattern of growth and victory with the death and suffering you experienced along the way. Homestuck asks: is victory worthwhile if you’re not you anymore? And would you be able to know?

What even is the self? Is there such a thing?

If you were left feeling somewhat disconcerted by our heroes’ tidy victory and departure to their cosmic prize, or by how which Rose gets the spotlight is so deeply, deeply arbitrary, there’s a good reason for that. You’re supposed to be.

The philosophical problem of Wacky Cat Rose is insignificant next to the bullshit of SBURB.

And don’t forget—John and Roxy’s denizens helped them achieve the retcon. Ultimately, the victory they achieved was mediated by the same amoral system of SBURB, and was a victory over an enemy, Caliborn, whose power was created, perpetuated, and ended by that same system.

Okay, so here’s where it gets contentious. There’s an argument to be made, which I’m not sure how I feel about, that some of the character development that could have been in post-retcon Act 6 was left out precisely to push this feeling and play up this tension. Note that this is not the same thing as saying that they were deliberately badly written, but that they’re deliberately written to make us uneasy.That Hussie deliberately played with the balance between making these retconned characters feel familiar and making them feel eerily different to leave us feeling uneasy with the result.

I’m not sure I like that idea. It smacks a little too much of that “everything is perfect” thinking that comes sometimes from the far Metastuck camp. Some of the differences may also be the result of flawed writing. (See: Jane and Jake’s character arcs, which I might talk about later.) And I want to be able to critique those flaws. Ultimately, I think we still needed more time and development to figure out who these new people were—even if our goal was ultimately to compare them to their earlier selves. And again, more conscious acknowledgement of the problem from our heroes—especially John, the linchpin in this last and biggest act of duplication—might have helped drive this theme home.

Still, I think the Problem of Dead Marios is one of the most fundamental questions of Homestuck, maybe THE biggest question. It’s essential to understand it to understand what Hussie’s doing—or attempting to do— in the retcon and the ending.

I don’t know that Homestuck offers us a clear answer to that question. There are some confusions around the issue, too. Where do merged selves fit in, exactly? Clearly they’re a big part of the discussion, because Hussie spends some time in Act 6, especially near the end bringing the identity-merging powers of the Sprites to the forefront. (See also: the identity-merged nightmare that is Lord English.)  Can we even come up with a clear answer to what it means when a dead Mario returns to life grotesquely fused with Toad? How does he beat the game? Does he tell himself that the princess is in another castle? Or what if he merges with Peach? Are they their own princess? How do they know if they’re in the right castle?

Um. Anyway—

Interestingly, it’s not all grotesque—spritesplosions suggest that personalities that are too different don’t stay together long, so a fusion might rely on some inherent compatibility between the two players. Erisol’s self-loathing, sure, but also Fefeta’s cheerfulness. Davepeta seems to be a way of bringing out the best in their players, a way of getting Davesprite past his angst and Nepeta past her fear. Honestly, I know a lot of people don’t like Davepeta as the ending of these two characters’ arcs, but I can’t help but love it. They’re the ultimate coolkid. Cool enough to know they don’t have to be cool. Regular Dave got there, too, of course. But was his retcon assist from John ultimately any different?

Then, of course, we come to Davepeta’s speech to Jade in one of the last few updates before Collide. Davepeta suggests that there is such a thing as an ultimate self beyond the many different selves one piles up throughout the cosmos. A set of principles that describes who you are that’s larger than any individual instance of you. Your inherent Mariohood. (Maybe this is comparable to your Classpect identity, which attempts to describe who you are?) Davepeta even tells Jade, strikingly, that one might learn to see beyond the barriers between selves. Be the ur-self, in practice, rather than theory. This would be incredible news for Jade, who wrestles with the issue of different selves perhaps more than any other character. (There’s a lot to say about Jade.)

Honestly, I wish this ur-self idea had been developed more, and I honestly expected it to be. It doesn’t fully come to fruition, I feel. (Same goes for Davepeta’s character. Ohhhh, ZING!) I’m not sure it entirely makes philosophical sense, especially with fusion—I mean, doesn’t Davepeta themself disprove it? Or at least complicate it? Like, are they part of the ur-Dave or the ur-Nepeta? They seem to imply they’re BOTH? Does that even work? Does that mean that Marieach is all the Peaches and Marios at once?

(In fact, Bowser/Peach/Mario are but the three manifestations of one eternal principle. Also, Bowser/Peach are the true power couple. Read my fanfiction plz.)

And what, say, of Dirk, who ultimately ends up rejecting aspects of his other selves? It feels like there’s a lot more you could say here, and I wonder if Hussie would have said more, if he’d had time. What’s weird is, none of our victorious kids never reach an ur-self (though to their descendants, they become archetypal to some degree), which one might have expected. They’re just individual selves who happened to get lucky. Does that make them representative of the whole? It feels like something’s missing here, or like something got dropped at the last minute.

Same goes for the idea of the Ultimate Riddle. You’d be forgiven for missing it, but there’s been this riddle in the background lore of SBURB that seems to have something to do with personal agency in this overwhelming, overarching system. Karkat called it predestination, saying something like “ANY HOPE YOU HAD OF DOING THINGS OTHERWISE WAS JUST A RUSE.” But others have interpreted it more positively. My favorite interpretation, from bladekindeyewear: the answer to the Riddle is that YOU shape the timeline through your existence, personality, and choices, even when it looks like it’s all predestination. Ultimately it’s your predestination, your set of events, based deeply on your nature, that you are creating. Someone like Caliborn can use his innate personality to achieve power; someone like John might be able to use it to achieve freedom.

I definitely expected something like that to be expressed more explicitly. Like, a big ah-ha moment that helps John or Jade or whoever understand how to escape Caliborn’s system. Something like that would have been very helpful for a lot of our heroes, actually, who’ve been pushed around by Skaia and SBURB together, in finding a cathartic ending.  Once again, I wonder if something was dropped or rushed because there wasn’t time to put it all in. There’s places where you can see hints of that Answer being implied, maybe? But it’s kind of ambiguous.

You can see how the Answer to the Ultimate Riddle ties into some of Davepeta’s ideas. If your personality, the rules of your behavior are a fundamental archetype that goes beyond each individual self, then the answer to whether it matters if one self of yours makes it through to victory is an emphatic YES. You are all of those people, and by winning one round with Skaia, you’ve won the whole game, despite all the arbitrary challenges and deaths it heaps upon you along the way.

This may strike some as too positive for Skaia’s brutality, or again, some way of excusing flaws in many characters’ arcs, or unfair things that happen to them. To be fair, I don’t know that Davepeta’s necessarily meant to be taken as authoritative or the voice of Hussie. They may simply be offering a purrspective.

Hussie not choosing to come right out and engage with the Ultimate Riddle leaves the question of Dead Marios and what they mean for the victorious versions of our cast very open. I like that in some ways—let the reader decide—but I can’t help but wish we had more to work with in making that decision. Plus, it might have brought the thematic messages of Homestuck all the way home to tie them more closely to our characters and their experiences—character development being one of the things most people found most lacking in the ending.

NEXT TIME: All that wacky gnostic stuff probably

#homestuck #off the cuff homestuck thoughts extravaganza 2017 #homestuck meta #homestuck theory #homestuck analysis #The Ultimate Riddle #dead marios #ugh why is tumblr basically unusable #pictures and text can go together TUMBLR #GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER IT'S 2017 WE HAVE HYPERCOMICS #HOMESTUCK COULD TEACH YOU A THING OR TWO ABOUT COMBINING MEDIA